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Watch out for brain scan hype
When you read about brain-scanning studies like the one in today’s New York Times, remember that interpreting fMRI data is more art than science and that the sample sizes are tiny and unrepresentative. I don’t know how to interpret any of the claims in the article without way more information, which will hopefully be forthcoming
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Obama: I’ve been in elected office longer
One of the highlights of my Sunday was seeing Barack Obama rebut the phony Hillary “experience” meme on “Meet the Press”: MR. RUSSERT: Hillary Clinton was first lady in Arkansas, first lady at the White House for eight years, U.S. senator for seven years. Can you compete with that? SEN. OBAMA: Well, you know, if
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More ad watches?
According to new studies sponsored by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, ad watch coverage by newspapers and local TV increased in 2006 (PDF). I haven’t read the reports closely, but the finding is encouraging.
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The Obama national anthem smear
The Nation’s Chris Hayes and PolitiFact have details on a smear circulating about Barack Obama by email. Here’s Politifact: A chain e-mail says a photograph shows Barack Obama is unpatriotic because he “refused” to say the Pledge of Allegiance and did not put his hand over his heart. But the photo was taken during the
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John Edwards, health care scrooge
John Edwards has followed up on his silly and probably unconstitutional promise to cut off health insurance for members of Congress if they don’t pass universal health care by promising to do the same for members of his cabinet: In his speech at Iowa’s Jefferson-Jackson dinner tonight, John Edwards vowed that if his administration doesn’t
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Krugman and Brooks are both right
There’s a simple answer to the David Brooks/Paul Krugman fight. Brooks seems to be correct in pointing out that the frequently circulated tale of Ronald Reagan appealing to racism during a campaign visit to Philadelphia, MS — which appears in Krugman’s new book — has been exaggerated. Krugman’s response is to provide a laundry list
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The downside of the “lie” label
Ezra Klein praises a Washington Post article on Rudy Giuliani’s health care dissembling: This is the headline and first paragraph of an article in The Washington Post: Giuliani Is Still Standing By Questionable Figures The former New York mayor would have us believe that he was off by one percentage point at most in calculating
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Dems screw up Cheney impeachment vote
How not to run Congress 101: Maybe now we know what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) meant when she said impeachment was “off the table.” Lawmakers’ voting cards on the issue were literally just that — off the table — during Tuesday’s brouhaha when Republicans briefly hijacked control of the chamber with a procedural maneuver
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Linda Hirshman chooses the wrong analogy
Via Jonah Goldberg, did you know that Linda Hirshman compared boycotting Fox News and NBC to standing up to the Nazis back in January? Last summer the Nevada Democrats pulled out of a debate sponsored by Fox News. Loaded, racist and all the rest, the Dems decided it was incoherent for them to pretend Fox
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More GOP “surrender” rhetoric
Roy Blount is the latest prominent Republican to suggest that Democrats want to “surrender” in Iraq — a word with implications of treason: On the Iraq war, the Democrats prepared to offer the administration $50 billion but with strings attached, including a goal to withdraw troops by December 2008. Republicans quickly accused them of threatening